Prefabricated transportable building structures have been desirable to enable fast erection of buildings. The methods of construction for prefabricated structures provided in the prior art suffer from various flaws: either they are heavy (i.e. concrete or steel) and difficult to erect, or they are small and light but allow only building small one story houses. The big and heavy structures require skilled labor and a judicial permitting to erect the building. The lighter and smaller structures do not allow for the design of larger buildings and homes. Accordingly, there is a need for prefabricated transportable building structures that are relatively easy to erect, light to transport, allow construction of buildings with several floors, and additionally qualify for ecological building.
European patent application EP2273019 discloses a construction structure consisting of segments in the form of vaults created by joining shaped monolithic blocks made of foamed polystyrene or foamed polyurethane, with blocks having their internal surfaces unidirectional according to a segment of an approximation of a circle and their sum forms the shape of internal surface of segment's vault. The radius of the vault is limited and therefore the size of the buildings made according to this method is limited to one story buildings and limited dimensions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,426 discloses an easily transportable building structure formed in part as a vault made of interlocking voussoirs in the form of identical insulated boxes each weighting less than 200 pounds. Permanent exterior joint connectors prestress the voussoirs for strength. Easily installed interior clips join the voussoirs. A floor made of insulated boxes is supported on a quickly-assembled adjustable structure frame. End walls made of insulating boxes close the end of the vault or vaults. External cladding and interior finishing panels, corresponding generally to the dimensions of the voussoirs, are easily installed and removed. Interior raceways are formed along the joinder lines of the insulated boxes. All of the parts of the structure are designed for erection of the structure in harsh environments, without handling small loose parts.
Other known art discloses various lightweight construction structures. For example, European patent application number EP1982827 discloses a lightweight construction structure comprising a sandwich panel with a heat-sensitive core between two outer sheets. Connectors at either end of the panel are welded to it using friction stir welding.
International patent application publication WO2006/081214 discloses a rapidly-erectable lightweight load resisting system for the construction of arched bridges, tunnels, underground bunkers or storage facilities, and hangars. It has a plurality of lightweight arched hollow tubular support members which are formed of fiber reinforced polymer material and are substantially oriented in a vertical plane. The lightweight tubular support members are connected by at least one or more lateral force resisting members which are positioned in a direction perpendicular to the vertical plane of the tubular support members, and which are capable of transferring vertical loads to the tubular support members and of providing lateral-load capacity to the load resisting system. The tubular support members are fitted with one or more holes near the top which allow them to be filled with a suitable material to provide additional strength or stiffness.
International patent application publication WO2000019027 discloses an ultra-light framework in particular for building an ecological house with very low energy consumption. It defines the skeleton of the various main parts of a building such as the floor, walls, a ceiling and a roof and is characterized in that the skeleton of said main parts consists of several identical base section elements assembled together by nodes so as to form a single three-dimensional system, said node being designed for receiving at most eight base elements arranged in a common plane and at most four base elements arranged at least on one side of said plane and inclined at 45 degrees relative to said plane.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,509,779 discloses a lightweight and portable building block for construction of a structure, such as house. The building block has a first portion that can be made from a thermally insulating material such as foam. The building block also has a second portion that can be made from a material having a high compressive strength. The first and second portions are affixed to each other to provide a preformed building block with a high compressive strength. The rigid portion can be a number of rigid sheets substantially embedded in the lightweight portion.
Other known art discloses various arch structures:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,721 discloses an arch structure for an earth sheltered building including a plurality of curved wood panel sections arranged in tandem and in a plurality of adjacent rows. The sections are joined adhesively and define an arch resting on a foundation of footings. Each of the panel sections includes side members joined to end members and ribs extending between the side members and between the end members. Joined to the members are top and bottom skins which enclose the panel and in conjunction with the ribs define a plurality of compartments. Insulation material is disposed within the compartments. At least one of the skins is offset on the side members to define male and female portions which are joined with panel sections in adjacent rows. The panels are fabricated from wood.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,164,928 discloses an arch structure which can be manufactured from masonry materials and which employs preformed concrete blocks as part thereof, bonded with and constituting an integral part of the complete structure and constituting a fluent material during casting of the structure.
There are publications teaching further architectural structures, such as European patent application EP1992751 disclosing an architectural structure having a main frame of honeycomb configuration that is erected vertically and expands in a plane, a structural unit therefore, and a method for constructing the same.
Insulation systems and passive buildings have been described for example in European patent application number EP1330579 disclosing a passive building comprising a heat insulation system. The disclosure provides a heat insulation essentially surrounding the wall, roof and floor surfaces from the outside in the form of a closed shell.
Various systems for reinforcing building structures are disclosed in known art:
European patent application number EP 889173 provides a reinforced frame for structures and a construction method of a building structure using the same. The reinforced frame for structures of the invention comprises basic plates and connection plates that are fastened with one another by connecting strings.
French patent application number FR2567989 discloses a self-supporting construction structure characterized in that it consists of a trellis made of expanded metal, some of the wires of which, define the diamond shaped meshes, are cut and bent in at least one same direction so as to form anchoring projections at least on one side of the plane of the trellis.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,965 discloses a reinforced concrete arch structure having a pre-stressed core imbedded in the concrete and comprising a number of sections consisting of parts adapted to be assembled in the field and to be pre-stressed during or after erection.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,823 discloses a method of manufacturing pre-stressed concrete pipes comprising arranging a reinforcing cage in a form, casting expansive concrete within the form in such manner that the reinforcing cage is disposed outwardly of the center of the wall thickness of the concrete layer and then forming the pipe centrifugally.
Accordingly, even if lightweight building structures are known, and methods to construct ecological houses as well as various methods to reinforce building structures are known, there are no methods providing light weight monolithic building blocks that would include reinforcing light weight structures and that could be easily and quickly assembled, provide ecological insulation and enable a passive house. The known art enables only construction of polystyrene monolithic structures of limited size. Furthermore, there is no teaching of ecological houses made of polystyrene blocks that would be earth quake or fire resistant, or capable of having more than one floor.
Accordingly, there is a need for a novel specification of structures and methods of construction to improve the known art to provide ecological house easy to construct, and having all the above features the known art does not enable.
Embodiments of this invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be described in more detail herein below.